Obama campaign details Pennsylvania-specific general election attack

Mitt Romney

Colby ItkowitzCall Washington Bureau

The morning after Mitt Romney all but locked up the Republican nomination with a five-state sweep and declared the primary contest officially over, President Barack Obama's Pennsylvania campaign team came out swinging with a memo aiming to undercut Romney's Pennsylvania support and laying the framework for how they'll attack Romney from now through November.

Romney finished with just under 60 percent of the vote in the Pennsylvania primary as nearly 20 percent of the state's Republicans cast a vote for their former U.S. senator, Rick Santorum, even though he had dropped out of the race two weeks prior.

"Mitt Romney made a significant investment in a sure-bet primary against non-existent foes, and still more than 40 percent of Republican primary voters voted against him," wrote Bill Hyers, Obamas's Pennsylvania state director. "Clearly the lack of Republican enthusiasm for Romney followed him to Pennsylvania."

Romney, who had been prepared to spend $2.9 million in Pennsylvania to lock up the nomination before Santorum bowed out, still made multiple visits to the state over the past weeks. Most recently he campaigned in Pittsburgh and then outside Philadelphia on Monday.

The Obama team used Pennsylvania-specific issues to characterize Romney as out of touch with women, the middle class and youth. They tied Romney to Gov. Tom Corbett, whose endorsement he received last week, and in doing so, highlighted Corbett's support for a mandatory ultrasound bill.

The Democrats used a gaffe some in the media have coined "CookieGate," saying Romney, who mocked cookies from a local Pittsburgh bakery, had alienated voters and offended area residents and small business.

Slips like those don't quickly disappear. Just ask Obama who the Republicans are still blasting in Pennsylvania for a comment in made during the 2008 primary about rural Pennsylvanians who bitterly "cling to their guns and religion."

The campaign memo also attacks Romney for his embrace of extending low interest rate student loans, a proposal backed by Obama and Democrats.

"Young Americans should be wary of Mitt Romney’s lip service on student loans, especially given his support for the Ryan budget, which would make it significantly harder for young people to get into and afford college," Hyers wrote.

The memo confirms that Romney is right on at least one front: The general election has begun!

Updated: Amanda Henneberg, a Romney campaign spokesperson, responded to the Obama memo. “Unable to defend the President’s record after three years of failed policies and broken promises, President Obama’s campaign is clearly running scared," she said. "While the President and his allies continue to point fingers and deflect blame, Mitt Romney will continue to put forward his positive vision of restoring America’s promise with more jobs, less spending, and smaller government.”